Boston Red Sox top 25-man roster in franchise history
By Sean Penney
Starting Pitcher 2
Roger Clemens
(1984-2007)
Career Stats: 354 W, 3.12 ERA, 8.55 K/9, 2.89 BB/9, 133.7 WAR
With Red Sox: 192 W, 3.06 ERA, 8.40 K/9, 2.78 BB/9, 76.8 WAR
By the time it was all said and done, Roger Clemens had played 24 seasons with four different teams, but his 13 years with Boston may have been his most dominant. Clemens’ record with the Red Sox was 192-111 with a 3.17 ERA and 2,201 strikeouts (169 per year). Just take a look at his ERA during the stretch from 1986-92 – 2.48, 2.97, 2.93, 3.13, 1.93, 2.62, 2.41 – amazing numbers.
In the late 80’s and early 90’s, Roger Clemens was arguably the most dominant pitcher in all of baseball. He also had some incredible individual seasons on their own. He delivered 20-plus wins in two seasons for Boston, 1986 and 1987. In 1988, Clemens finished the season with 291 strikeouts (second best career wise as he had 292 for Toronto in 1997).
The ’86 season may go down as the best season of his career. He went 24-4 with 238 strikeouts and won the AL Cy Young Award, the first of three during his time in Boston, as well as the AL MVP in a landslide. This was the first time a pitcher had won MVP since Vida Blue in 1971 and no pitcher would do it again until Justin Verlander in 2011. He also threw 20 strikeouts in one game against the Mariners in 1986, the first pitcher to do so at the time. He added another 20 strikeout game in 1996 against the Tigers in Detroit. He is the only player in MLB history to have thrown 20 strikeouts in two games.
Clemens was an 11-time All-Star, including five times as a member of the Red Sox. He is still waiting for a call from Cooperstown, but he was elected into the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2014 despite a messy divorce with Boston when he left for Toronto after the ’96 season.
Despite what some fans may think of him personally, there is no doubting that The Rocket is arguably the best pitcher in Red Sox history.
Next: Starting Pitcher 3